Samsung has become a Platinum Member of the Linux Foundation Networking Fund (LFN), a new body that brings together the decision makers of participating organisations. The advantages are enhanced operational excellence, simpler member engagement, and increased collaboration across open source networking project and standards bodies.

According to the Linux Foundation's bylaws, Platinum Members "engage in or support the production, manufacture, use, sale, or standardisation of Linux and other open source-base technologies" and pay an annual fee of $500,000.

Commenting on the development, Woojune Kim, senior vice president of North America Business, Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, said:

“I am confident that the Linux Foundation Networking Project will serve as a huge source of innovation for next generation networks, including 5G. As a member of the project, Samsung will work with the open source community to ensure that new carrier-grade solutions based on new technologies such as cloud data centers are available.”

Arpit Joshipura, general manager of Networking and Orchestration at the Linux Foundation, said:

“We are delighted to welcome Samsung to the LFN. We are building a strong community of ecosystem partners all committed to operational excellence and collaboration that will ultimately enable faster integration and upstreaming across open source and open standards. I look forward to working closely with Samsung and the rest of the community in this endeavor.”

Samsung believes that, as 5G and IoT devices are being developed going forward, a more flexible and software-centric network platform is needed., It believes open source software meets this criteria because it can overcome difficulties with hardware-centric legacy network equipment.